With the lead changing hands four times in the final two minutes, the Eastern Conference finally emerged victorious on the final possession, as Carmelo Anthony's last-ditch effort at draining a game-winning 3 came up short and the East held on for a 141-139 win. It's the East's fourth win in the last six years of the February exhibition.
Dwyane Wade, making his sixth consecutive All-Star Game appearance, earned MVP honors, finishing with 28 points, 11 assists and five steals to pace the East. He also sank two crucial free throws with 12 seconds to play, helping the East hold on in the final seconds with the outcome in doubt.
Anthony finished with a double-double, 27 points and 10 rebounds, in the losing effort. Anthony stepped up nicely in the absence of injured West leader Kobe Bryant, but it wasn't enough. The East ran and gunned its way to victory in one of the most competitive All-Star Games in recent memory.
Final: East 141, West 139: No sense in merely settling for a tie in the All-Star Game, right? With the tension thick and millions watching, you've got to go for the dramatic win. Carmelo Anthony keeps the ball for the last shot, and he gets a decent look from the top of the key, but it's not meant to be. Carmelo's shot falls short, Dwight Howard gets the rebound, and the East finishes off a wild 141-139 victory in one of the most competitive All-Star Games the NBA has seen in a long, long time.
Fourth quarter, 5.0 seconds, East 141-139: Bosh inbounds to Howard, and with LeBron double-teamed, Howard kicks the ball right back to a wide-open Bosh. Bosh tries to drive the lane and score, but he's tripped up by Billups along the way, which means Bosh heads to the line for yet another two free throws. And he makes them both, putting the East All-Stars back in the driver's seat. Maybe now, we're finally ready for the final possession of this fourth quarter. Maybe.
Fourth quarter, 7.7 seconds, 139-139: George Karl calls a play to put Dirk Nowitzki on the wing for a shot at a game-winning 3 — but he never gets it off. Dwight Howard fouls Dirk with seven seconds to play, so instead of getting a chance to win the game, the Mavericks' star must settle for merely tying it. And tie it he does. Nowitzki has now made all six of his free-throw attempts in this fourth quarter, and the West is still alive. Now it's up to the East to make a play in crunch time. LeBron, Wade, Bosh — who's your go-to guy?
Fourth quarter, 12.7 seconds, East 139-137: Dwyane Wade comes up with a huge steal from Deron Williams with 20 seconds to play, and with 12 seconds left, D-Will inexplicably fouls Wade intentionally with the West over the limit and Wade ready to ice the win with two free throws. Wade hits both shots. The onus is now on the West All-Stars to reclaim this game on the final possession. When was the last time we saw this much drama in an exhibition basketball game? It's all going to come down to one final shot, in all likelihood. Who will be the hero — or the goat — for the West tonight?
Fourth quarter, 1:07, 137-137: Bosh makes a great move to break away from Dirk under the basket, and LeBron feeds him with the perfect entry pass to give him a chance at an open dunk, but Bosh inexplicably misses the easy put-in. Back on the other end of the floor, Mr. Big Shot comes through once again. Chauncey Billups ties the game with one minute to play, and this game is going to come down to the final possession.
Fourth quarter, 1:46, East 137-135: A glimmer of hope for the West: First Chauncey Billups knocks down a big 3 in transition, and then Dirk Nowitzki draws a key foul on the following possession and gets to the line for two shots, draining them both. Dirk is now 4-for-4 from the charity stripe, all in the fourth quarter, which is no small factor in keeping the West alive in this basketball game. The West is now one possession away from tying this thing up.
Fourth quarter, 2:48, East 135-128: The East is starting to pull away with this thing. Wade gets a huge dunk in transition with just over four minutes to play, and the West has failed to get the ball in the hole on the past couple of possessions. Time is ticking away, and they're going to have to get at least a couple of stops to even have a chance in this thing.
Fourth quarter, 4:29, East 133-126: What's great about this fourth quarter is that every time this game starts to get close, LeBron or D-Wade steps up and hits a huge shot to keep the East out in front. If the West is going to have a shot at this thing, someone will have to step up defensively and do something to contain at least one of these two superstars. Can't just let them both run wild — that's a recipe for disaster.
Fourth quarter, 6:07, East 126-124: If pressed to name an MVP for tonight's game, I might be tempted to go the unorthodox route and cast a vote for Chris Bosh. He's not doing anything flashy like Wade, LeBron, Durant or Carmelo, but he's quietly shooting very efficiently and leading everyone on the floor with 10 rebounds, eight on the defensive end. But when was the last time the most modest guy on the floor took home the hardware? (It's not a rhetorical question — the answer is 1982, when Larry Bird won it.)
Fourth quarter, 9:48, East 120-116: With Bosh and Pierce starting off the fourth quarter on a sour note, putting up bad jumpers and giving away easy stops, the West has started its charge back into this game. Going big with Pau Gasol, Zach Randolph and now Chris Kaman, the West has started getting the ball inside to create some easy scoring opportunities. It's a 7-2 run for the West to start the fourth quarter, proving that this game is not over yet by any stretch of the imagination.
End of third quarter, East 118-109: Chris Bosh has quietly piled up six points in the final four minutes of this third quarter; he now has 16 points overall on 7-of-9 shooting. The two teams close the quarter by trading 3s on the final two possessions — first Pierce drains one from the corner with a wide-open look, and then Durant hits from the wing to beat the final buzzer of the third quarter. Pierce now has eight points; Durant has 15.
Third quarter, 2:10, East 111-101: Gotta love Kobe in his sideline interview referring to tonight's All-Star Game as "the greatest pickup game in the world." That's a great description — everyone's running and gunning, everyone's throwing up their own shots, everyone's trying to make flashy plays to impress their friends, and the final score is an afterthought. Leave it to Kobe to offer up the candid analysis of tonight's contest.
Third quarter, 3:59, East 103-94: Random thought that occurred to me while watching Carmelo Anthony step to the free-throw line for his first attempt of the night: Do we even need referees in this game? Wouldn't it be more fun to just watch everyone hack away without any fear of repercussions? That may sound a little crazy, but look at it this way: Gratuitous uncalled fouls would make for much better basketball than no one playing defense at all. At least this way, you'd have defenders doing something to stop the easy transition buckets.
Third quarter, 5:33, East 97-88: What's the over-under on how many possessions we're going to see a team actually set things up in the halfcourt offense from here on out? Like four, maybe? Carmelo and LeBron continue to run and gun down the floor, back and forth, trading baskets with no end in sight. It's hard to get stops when you only have two or three seconds to find your man and get your defense situated. Gotta love All-Star Games.
Third quarter, 9:10, East 84-71: The West is starting to get sloppy here in the second half. A couple of bad Duncan passes lead to turnovers and a couple of bad Dirk shots lead to easy stops for the East defense. We've got a double-digit lead on our hands for the first time tonight, and with the way LeBron and Wade are playing here in the second half, the West has got to step it up offensively to keep pace.
Halftime, East 76-69: This game has turned into an incredibly fast-paced shootout, with everyone breaking loose for transition buckets and the shot clock hardly ever dipping below 18 seconds. The East has outrun and outgunned the West here in the second quarter, led by four scorers (LeBron, Howard, Bosh and Wade) all in double figures. Carmelo Anthony has a game-high 17 points on 8-of-14 shooting, but a complete and total lack of defensive stops has made this a romp for the East All-Stars so far. We'll see if anything changes in the second half as we near crunch time.
Second quarter, 3:01, East 65-59: LeBron James wasn't kidding with that "find your second wind" talk midway through the second quarter. A refreshed King James comes off the bench and immediately charges through the lane and does that thing that only LeBron can do, burning four defenders at once to create an open layup for himself. He's pretty good when he wants to be. The East has a six-point lead for the first time tonight.
Second quarter, 5:47, East 55-53: Is it just me, or are Dwyane Wade and Kevin Durant putting on a better slam dunk contest than Nate Robinson and DeMar DeRozan did last night? The two highlights of the second quarter so far have been Durant's beautiful alley-oop on the feed from Deron Williams, and Wade's immediate response of charging the lane and finishing a one-handing slam on the ensuing possession. These two teams are predictably trading baskets, with no one (save for occasionally the Hawks' Al Horford) playing defense.
Second quarter, 7:47, West 51-47: In a development that should surprise absolutely no one, we're seeing that Dwyane Wade can be absolutely awesome when there's no one even attempting to defend against him. Wade's athleticism has been second to none in tonight's game, as the six-time All-Star has been charging into the lane for dunks and easy inside shots at every opportunity. Eight points for Wade on 4-of-7 shooting, and the East continues to nip at the West's heels in this game.
Second quarter, 9:12, West 45-43: How long will it take before Kevin Durant is as big a star as anyone in the All-Star Game every season? Five years? Three? Just one? Durant is now 3-for-6 from the floor for six points, including an electrifying dunk here early in the second quarter. When he gets on a roll, he's a spectacle to behold. Somewhere, Portland GM Kevin Pritchard is watching tonight's game and kicking himself for taking Greg Oden at No. 1 overall in the 2007 draft.
End of first quarter, East 37-34: News flash: Rajon Rondo is going to try to be the hero tonight. Whereas in a Celtics game, Rondo is methodical and tries to make things happen for his bigger, more physical teammates, Rondo is taking shots from all over the floor in tonight's exhibition, and it's actually working surprisingly well. Rajon is 2-for-3 from the floor, Celtics teammate Paul Pierce is 2-for-4, and the East has managed to hold the lead with its second unit on the floor.
First quarter, 3:25, East 25-23: The East takes its first lead of the game on an insane play — Rajon Rondo finds LeBron on the wing, LeBron creates an open look for a 3, but he misses. Chris Bosh comes out of nowhere, and in one beautiful, fluid motion, he drops LeBron's rebound in with a one-handed slam. That's as good a dunk as anything we saw in last night's contest, and it's enough to put the East All-Stars out in front.
First quarter, 5:44, West 18-17: It's remarkable how explosive a player Dwyane Wade can be when he's the second-best option on a team. We saw it with D-Wade playing alongside LeBron at the Olympics in 2008, and we're seeing it now too. When King James is there to keep the opposing defense occupied, that frees up Wade to run the floor and make open shots from all over the place. Fun to watch.
In other news, I think Dwight Howard just hit a three. I must be hallucinating or something. That cannot have just happened.
First quarter, 7:50, West 14-7: You know how we've been hearing all this hype this season about LeBron James becoming a facilitator, making plays with his teammates, making everyone else better? Well, all bets are off in the All-Star Game. LBJ is trying to do it all for the East tonight, forcing jumpers from all over the floor. He's 1-for-3 so far, and none of them have been particularly good looks. Meanwhile Nash, Dirk and Duncan are sharing the ball beautifully to stake the West to it's early lead.
First quarter, 10:51, West 6-0: The Western Conference All-Stars are off to a blazing start. Hometowner Dirk Nowitzki knocks down a couple of beautiful mid-range jumpers to get the West out to an early 4-0 lead, and Carmelo Anthony tips in a Tim Duncan miss to make it 6-0. Kevin Garnett and LeBron James have managed just a couple of long clunkers for the East — it's almost like we're seeing these All-Stars play (gasp!) defense. There's a first time for everything, I guess.
8:38 p.m.: File under "incredibly predictable": after seeing KG, LeBron and Dwight Howard prance out onto the stage with a coordinated East All-Star team dance, was anyone else not at all surprised to see the West starters chicken out on trying to emulate them? Between Tim Duncan, Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki, it just didn't seem like they had the personalities. Sad but true.
Actual basketball coming up from Cowboys Stadium in just a minute. I swear.
8:23 p.m.: We're minutes away from tipoff here at Cowboys Stadium in Texas, and the biggest NBA All-Star news so far has nothing to do with the goings-on on the basketball court. The big NBA headline today is the Cavs' interest in Suns star Amare Stoudemire – imagine how good Cleveland could look down the stretch with Amare, LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal all playing for a championship together? It's scary.
We'll have some actual basketball coming up in a few minutes. But until then, spend a few minutes fantasizing about three of the world's most freakish athletes sharing one basketball on one court. Pretty crazy thought.
4:05 p.m.: We've been through the rookie-sophomore game, the skills competition, the dunk contest, and now all the riff-raff is over. It's time for the big game.
In what will surely be the most attended basketball game in recorded history, fans will flock to Dallas' mammoth Cowboys Stadium on Sunday night for the NBA's 60th annual All-Star Game.
LeBron James, who owns two of the last four All-Star MVP awards, will lead the Eastern Conference in tonight's tilt; Kobe Bryant, who's won the other two, will sit out as he rests his finger and ankle injuries. Hometown hero Dirk Nowitzki, who's having a career year for the Mavericks, will start for the Western Conference in his stead.
One team will win, one team will lose, and zero teams will play anything even closely resembling defense. It's the All-Star game, and you've gotta love it. Stay tuned.
